Adultery

A Novel

You read about these things in the newspapers, Daniel Fielding thought when Denise did not return to the car. A moment of brief pity for those whose ordinary lives are shattered by a sniper's bullet, a burning house, a kidnapped child. He had often wondered how people moved past these tragedies.Some, he supposed, never did. From Adultery

DANIEL FIELDING, a quiet, middle-aged editor at a Toronto book-publishing house, has it all. An attractive wife, a charming daughter who excels at her private school, and a desirable house in a nice neighbourhood all add up to a successful life. If his job is becoming a little tedious and his boss a little too supercilious, then so be it. But when Fielding and a pretty, very assertive young colleague travel together to the Frankfurt Book Fair, what begins as an indiscretion unexpectedly explodes into abduction and murder. Now Fielding must navigate the devastation of the lives left behind.

Adultery is a subtle, powerful story of a man's fall from grace and his search for forgiveness, even in the unlikeliest of places.

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A middle-aged editor from a Toronto publishing firm has it all –- loving wife, accomplished daughter, nice home in a good neighbourhood, dreams of the ideal retirement. He’s even quite a moral fellow and has not fallen to the temptation of casual affairs on the road. His almost boring life is thrown into upheaval by one wrong move (and the almost inevitable ensuing wrong moves) when he gets into bed with a young colleague at the Book Fair in Frankfurt. Murder, grief and disillusionment ensue. This is a compelling tale, albeit not as well-realized as his award-winning Clara Callan

After reading my first book by this author "October" (I really liked it), I started reading the “Adultery” with great expectations. And I waited until the last page that my expectations will be met - it turned out - to no avail. Moreover, it creates the impression that all it was already read or seen somewhere. The book is very boring. And this self-pity of the protagonist, and his some sort of the mid-exalted class of snobs of Toronto hubris to people from small towns, starting with kind of humiliating descriptions about clothing used by provincials (“Dockers” pants), etc. and ending with overwhelming desire to return to his undisturbed microcosm of prosperity with its famous schools, golf or tennis, predictable phrases, boring dinners, and a haughty look at everything and everyone who does not live in downtown Toronto and has a well-paid positions.
This writer, with his talent, could instead of an entire book to lay all the events in the two-page story for housewives with their never-ending “empty” schedules for “To do things”.

While it's true that this story about the consequences of adultery seems, at first glance, mundane and even predictable, the book is worth reading for the beautiful descriptions of place. Anyone who has been to a small Ontario town will be pleasantly surprised by Mr. Wright's observant descriptions of small-town minutiae that we see but take for granted. Clara Callan and The Age of Longing are two other Wright novels that prove Ontario does indeed have a culture, albeit one so subtle that we don't take note until someone artfully describes it for us.

Poor Dan Fielding. While on a working trip to Europe, he accidently sleeps with a co-worker and has great sex. After doing it in a car; however, she goes out to take a pee and doesn''t come back. Then Dan is left to go to the police, confess his infidelity, and identify the body. Too bad! Then he has to fly home, and be confronted by his wife. How sad! And when he goes to the funeral, well, I can''t tell you everything! It is just so mundane, and predictable in so many ways that it was a relief when the book ends. Poor reader!